Strictly pumping?

Most definitely a thing! I exclusively pumped from the beginning. I took my pump with me to the hospital and the lactation consultant was very helpful.

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I tried it for a few weeks but didn’t manage to keep my supply up enough

It's a thing but I'd say it's harder to maintain/increase your supply - I did it for a week when baby was born and struggled to latch before we got the hang of breastfeeding. It's pretty gruelling. You need to pump all day and through the night and it takes longer than breastfeeding with all the equipment sterilising and the fact that a pump is much less efficient than a baby at removing milk.
It's not recommended really that you pump at all before your supply has regulated at around 6-8 weeks so it may be easier to move to exclusively pumping after already establishing breastfeeding maybe.

I exclusively pumped for 14 months with my first. Now that I’m breastfeeding my second I don’t know how I ever survived EP. It is sooooo much more work

My daughter was tongue tied and hurt my nipples so bad when she was born so I had to switch to pumping and have a pretty good milk supply now. I decided to bottle feed her too so my husband can help and I can get some rest since she would be on my boobs for almost an hour.

Exclusive pumping. I did it for 10 months. Its A LOT of work. I was producing 4-5L a day and if i missed 1 session or was over an hour late it messed my supply up

I would pump for half an hour, feed baby for half an hour, change/burp/play then put baby down and it was time to pump again (every 3 hours to maintain supply) and it was annoying as heck going out having to pump, i should’ve gotten a wearable pump to be honest. But i built a mean freezer stash that fed my girl BM for a further 5 ish months tho

I BF and pumped from the beginning. My LG would fall asleep and never eat enough so I started pumping. It is exhausting. Ditto to and the process feels never ending. Plus if baby is awake when you need to pump it is hard to get in a good pump if they're moving around or having an off day. I have cordless pumps and it's still hard to multi-task and get in a good pump session

You can but it’s so much more work as others have said with having to clean and sterilise pump parts and bottles and then the time it takes to feed baby as well it just takes up more time than direct breastfeeding so unless you need to do it by necessity I wouldn’t recommend it xxx

I EP for the first month after having my daughter until we were finally able to figure out how to get her to like breastfeeding, it was probably the worst thing I could have done, personally. My supply was great but I was up twice as long at night and always had to have a pump with me wherever I went, which was way more difficult to do when out of the house! My husband never fed the baby despite her being bottle fed, so maybe that would have made it easier on me especially those first couple weeks. I think it can definitely be great for some people but from personal experience, if you can avoid it, or do like half and half, do that instead!

I’m going to try to do all three! (Breastfeed, pump, formula). Ultimately I want my baby fed! Lol I’m trying to keep in mind that my body and baby are going to do what they’re going to do. And that none of it is my fault. Hopefully I’ll remember that and take it to heart if PPD hits.

I pumped straight from the beginning, my milk would come out strong and too much for my girl to be able to drink , she would choke and cry , and pumping worked great for us I don’t find it hard work , I literally pump for like 5 mins until I get 5 oz which is the amount she drinks

My friend did it out of necessity, and one thing she liked was her husband was able to participate in feedings. We are hoping to feed and pump so daddy can feed sometimes but also because I'll have to pump after maternity leave anyway.

I exclusively pumped for a good 7 months
I did combination feeding so my daughter had breast milk and formula

Yes - I did this just because I was worried he wasn’t having enough milk from me so I just switched to expressing only. I will say you need a decent pump and it does take a lot of time as you are doubling up the work (pumping and then bottle feeding) my partner liked that he was able to feed baby with a bottle too and helped them bond and gave me a break haha x

I exclusively pumped from day 3 onwards as direct just did not work out. I hated every pumping session but manage to do it until 4 months and decided to switch to formula. BF for me just took too much time and hurt too much. I don’t mind washing parts and sterilizer. I suggest you get a good pump and sterilizer, I’ve used spectra for pump and the papablic one for sterilizer and they work wonder. I’ve become pretty efficient after a few weeks of pumping and had to do only 10-15 min per pumping sessions to empty the breast every 4-5 times a day. My LO is an efficient drinker and he would finish drinking in 5-10min each feeding. Definitely do what is best for you! There is no right or wrong!

Thats all I did for 3 months! Never had time to do anything other than pump feed my LO and clean the parts before starting all over. It was exhausting and Noone ever told me it was OK to use formula also until I started breaking down. I would've made it alot longer in our breastmilk journey if I had not felt so defeated.

My baby is almost 9 months and I've had to strictly pump and 0/10 do not recommend. It is so much more work and makes everything so much more stressful! If you're able to nurse and pump occasionally I would definitely do that

I'm currently doing both. BF at night and pump and gives bottles of breastmilk during the day. I love that my husband can feed him while I sleep early in the evening and then wake up later for feeding. He's nearly 8 months.

Exclusively pumping sucksssss I did it for a month with both my kids. Get some kinda portable pump and a pumping bra. Put pump parts in a bag and store in fridge for a few sessions so you aren’t always washing. My babies always sleep good so for me I’d rather sleep the night with them than get up and pump so that’s why that didn’t work out for us lol

I just got done exclusively pumping for ten months. Yes it’s hard and a lot of work but it made it easier when my husband could get up and feed the baby. It’s 15 minutes of your life every 3 hours. It was rough the first 3 months with a newborn but it got easier. I would just put her on an activity mat while I pumped. I did get a hands free pump which helped that I wasn’t connected to a wall. I found one on Amazon where a pair was $140 and it got more milk than my spectra did and it was affordable

I am, 13wpp and exclusively expressing since breastfeeding didn't work out for us. We tried for 8 weeks and she only latched and fed a handful of times.
The downside I've found is sticking to a schedule to keep my milk supply up, so even when bub is asleep you need to pump at certain times (I'm currently every 4 hours)
The upside is others can feed bub while you sleep, do house work etc or even go out for a little bit

I pumped exclusively 7-8 times a day because my son wasn’t latching due to a tongue tie. It has its pros and cons for me. It was pretty depressing to be hooked to a machine constantly esp
middle of the night. But the upside was that hubby and I could take turns with the midnight feeds and We could get a full night’s sleep. Now he’s latching so doing mixed feeding now. That’s working out pretty well too

Yes I did for 6 months as my supply wasn't that great at the start and I could see how much I was making . I could still give him the good stuff without giving up

I exclusively pumped for 8 months and was going to try to keep going but dried up. I had a hard time with BF from positioning to latching. It was too much work and once I decided to do pumping it made it easier because my husband could help with the feeding. It isn't easy by any means. To get the supply you have to pump every 2 or 3 hours for at least 20mins. Get a good pumping bra and pumping machine. I had the spectre v2 I think? The wireless one. Find your TV show or podcast or magazine..whatever that helps time seem to go by faster. Around 7 months we introduced half formula and half breast milk to have my supply last longer.

If you decide not to pump or BF that is ok. Your baby will still grow and thrive. Do what works for you.

Mt friend did cause eher baby wouldn't latch and she's doing just fine! Gets loads of milk for her :)